The eight year old boy was playing with friends on 28 April 2009 when they got into an unsecured storage area on a site at Linwood, near Paisley.

The development was nearing completion and the housebuilder, BDW Trading Ltd, had sold some of the finished houses and there were people living in them while work continued on the remaining homes.

The young boy and his family had moved into one of the new houses.

As the children were playing in the storage area, some timber roof trusses fell onto the boy, trapping him underneath.

He was rescued by two neighbours who managed to lever the roof trusses up off him.

He sustained a serious injury to his liver and had abdominal bleeding, and was kept in hospital for eight days.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the site was only partially fenced and could be easily accessed by members of the public.

The roof trusses had also been stacked upright which made them unstable and more likely to fall over.

Paisley Sheriff’s Court heard that when an HSE Inspector visited the site, BDW Trading Ltd were not aware that there had been an incident and that a young child had been injured.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Gerry McCulloch said: “BDW Trading Ltd knew that families were living right next to of the construction site, and as such the safety of children should have been a primary consideration.

“If the company had taken the straightforward precaution of fencing off the construction site, the children would not have been able to get into the area and this young lad would not have received potentially life-threatening injuries.”

BDW Trading Ltd, of Barratt House, Cartwright Way, Forest Business Park, Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire was fined £20,000 after it pleaded guilty to safety breaches.